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Dear John

movies|dear%20john|2010-03-04

A romantic drama about a soldier who falls for a conservative college student while he's home on leave. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments. While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas - correspondance that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

Editorial

A slice of pure melodrama from author Nicholas Sparks is given a dramatic, glossy sheen by Lasse Hallstrom, as Special Forces soldier John (Channing Tatum) falls in love with Savanna (Amanda Seyfried) while on leave – but faces hard choices when he returns to his unit.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Tatum delivers a decent performance as a former brawler, saved by military discipline and bowled over by a girl; Seyfried has a harder time in a role conceived to drive the plot rather than to convince as an actual human being.

While war, 9/11, their own foibles and fatal illnesses conspire against them, the pair struggle to hold on to their relationship. The result might still draw a sneaky tear, but while this pair may hold a torch for each other, they can't hold a candle to the best weepies

Helen O’Hara